We spent the weekend in Brighton as a late last birthday hurrah – and it was indeed hurrah, because the sun kindly shone and we had a lovely time seeing what Brighton has to offer…

We stayed at the Kemp Townhouse, a vey nice little B&B in Kemp Town, a short walk along the seafront from the town centre. Best part was breakfast – I had a perfect little boiled egg and Marmite solders both days along with fruit and pastries from the buffet table.

I liked Kemp Town a lot. Perhaps mostly, if not entirely, because every other shop seemed to be a sweet little vintage emporium. Right in the middle is the big pink motherlode, Kemp Town Flea Market: two floors of vintage rummaging heaven with a particularly sweet selection of 70s studio pottery right at the back on the top floor. I’ll share my purchases in another post…

We stopped into the Black Dove pre-dinner on Saturday – perhaps one of the best bars I’ve visited in recent memory. Great beers, a friendly manager, homemade damson gin and wonderful decor that brought to mind an eccentric gentleman’s parlour… it felt quite San Francisco. London needs a bar like this.

Dinner at Food For Friends lived up to expectations. Nibbles of hummus and crispy tofu, followed by gnocchi for Josh and stuffed mushroom with feta and pesto for me. I forwent dessert in favour of triple-cooked chips with truffle mayo: good call.

On Sunday we took a bus to the Marina for the car boot sale. Not exactly the loveliest part of town, but I did come away with a few goodies so it was worth it. We took a very bracing walk back along the beach, stopping for excellent coffee at Ground on the way.

The tourist bit – the Pavilion and the pier, of course!

P.S. Most of these pics are by Josh as he stole was given permission to borrow my camera for most of the trip, while I happily Instagrammed and snapped on my OM10 (more pics when they’re back from the developer). Check out his blog for a writeup of Brighton’s beer spots!